Schmoozing with Charles, second attempt

Dear Charles and friends,

I must apologize for taking so long to post the pictures from my France trip. I

have been totally occupied, and then I’ve got to learn to use Photoshop to lower the pixels and reduce the file size of my pictures…Now I finally got the hang

of it. I took almost 250 pictures and about 4 hours of video throughout my entire trip. I would charge up my digital camera and my camcorder and have them ready each morning. Each evening I would download all the pictures into my nephew’s

laptop computer and empty out the memory card in my camera, making room for more pictures the next day. Before I came back to Canada, my nephew copied all the

pictures onto a CD, and somehow during the process, he messed up and erased all

the pictures I took when we were touring Notre Dame, and the Arc of Triumph. I still have the video, but no more pictures to share with you folks on those famous tourist spots.

You should have seen me on the street of Paris…I had my digital camera, my camcorder, water bottles, my kids’ jacket hanging all over my waist and neck, the local French folks thought I was a Japanese reporter from Tokyo! They always thought we were a Japanese family due to our lighter skin color, compared to most of

the French, and the local Chinese folks living in Paris.

The first picture I uploaded is Sacre Coeur basilica, the famous ‘white church’

as the local people called it. My cousin took us there on a sunny morning. It was a rather hot day and we had to take the subway, “Metro” in French, to go from zone 13 to visit Orssay museum first, the third picture was taken from the second floor of Orssay museum, looking across the city to Sacre Coeur in the far end. They had pamphlets in Chinese, and in English, on the counter located by the

entrance, to introduce and explain all the art works in the museum. My cousin told me the local authority only began to provide publications in Chinese to all

the tourist spots in 2004. As China rises to be an economic powerhouse, they anticipate that there will be a lot of Chinese tourists coming to France.

We took the Metro on another route to go to Sacre Coeur. There is a huge painting of Jesus Christ on the vault ceiling of the basilica, and some very old and religious exhibitions inside. Too bad I couldn’t read French and did not have any

understanding of the French history to appreciate what was displayed there.

We then went to have lunch in a restaurant a few blocks away. It was a medium size restaurant that serves Chinese and Thai cuisines. Apparently it was famous because back in 1994, the famous Taiwanese singer, (Teresa Teng) Deng Li Jun, was

there several times with her French boyfriend. I didn’t know my favorite singer

, Deng Li Jun, loved Thai cuisine? After lunch we toured the area behind Sacre Coeur where all the artists flocked. You can get a hand drawn portrait of yourself for about 15 Euros ($25 Canadian dollars, or $175 RMB) , if you can sit still

for ten minutes or so.

The fastest way to get from point A to point B in Paris is to take the underground Metro. One of my cousins owns a taxi company and he tried to give me a ride in his cab, it took so much longer because of the ubiquitous traffic jams. Late that afternoon we went to my third uncle’s house and met three other cousins whom I haven’t met for 25 years. We had a good dinner in a fancy Chinese restaurant in Lognes, a satellite city in the outskirt of Paris.

That was a busy day chock full of good food, beautiful scenery and great companionship. I did so much walking I could hardly lift my legs that evening. I headed

straight for bed when I got back to my wife’s cousin’s apartment, and slept like a baby, until about 2 AM, then my childhood nanny called from Bowen, Australia, who insisted on waking me up because she wanted to hear her baby’s voice, me! And she made me promised her that I will go to Australia to visit her in the

near future.

The second picture, the night view of the Eiffel Tower, was taken when I was in

a tourist boat floating in the river near by. The twinkling white lights only go

on once every half an hour, I was waiting for the right moment before I clicked

. I went to the tower twice, both at night. The tourist boat ride lasted over an

hour, I was almost able to see half of Paris as the boat moved slowly in the Seine River. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and breath-catching. I found Paris to be too hot during the day, but in the evening, when the cool breeze was blowing gently, oh…What a paradise!

Well, so much for the schmoozing. Charles, don’t worry so much about my previous attempt to schmooze with you. Your job appears to be more demanding than mine.

And who knows, may be one of the students you trained may one day become a great scientist who finds a way to make Man lives forever. I count on you to realize

my dream of immortality!

Cheers!

Neil